I have great respect for what you have accomplished as a bitcoin stock exchange, and there is great potential for what you could parlay this site into in the future, but it is obvious you don't see it that way. Your approach precludes that. It operates under the assumption that you believe you can only continue to operate for as long as you can fly under the radar, and as long as your users are willing to look the other way at your "pretend" exchange.
What is the endgame here?
If you want to assert the claims in your ToS, rather than evolve them, I assume you are ready to own that position. Think about it and let us know, because maybe you have some real users, wanting to make real investments elsewhere. Maybe this whole bitcoin thing wants to be real, and wants to grow up without you
Wow, I am pretty surprised seeing this from you TAT. I thought you might have a background in finance / investments or something. The bolded part is exactly the case. The exchange will only be allowed to operate as long as it operates under the radar. Running a real exchange for US citizens requires a huge investment of time, resources, licensing, etc. And it is highly unlikely that regulators would allow someone that ran an illegal exchange to convert it into a legitimate exchange.
The SEC exists to protect investors and it is principally concerned about protecting unsophisticated investors from risky investments that appear to be legitimate. Sure, his language won't absolve him of any responsibility in court, but it is definitely a step in the right direction. It serves as a warning to the participant that everything is EXTREMELY risky, which it is. It would be much worse if he created the illusion that it was a safe environment for people to invest.
As long as the exchanges / securities continue to keep a low profile, then we may be OK. But drawing additional scrutiny from the US / Chinese / any other regulators would be TERRIBLE for the community. And if the authorities believed they could seize a large amount of money from the exchanges / securities, they may very well do just that (we are not even close to that point yet).
Also before even considering having a legitimate exchange, there must be legitimate securities. Forcing the exchange to adhere to rigorous standards without first forcing the securities to adhere to standards makes no sense. If you actually want to legitimize the securities then you are in a great position to do so as a board member of the biggest company on this forum. Please push for the board to disclose their holdings in AM and their trades. If you do this, then people will take your viewpoints and your calls for legitimacy seriously. If not, then it is clear that you want people to adhere to a stricter standard then you are willing to adhere to yourself.